James Thurber

(8 December 1894 - 2 November 1961, USA)

Cartoonist and author James Thurber was a towering figure in American comedy, who was responsible for moving comic writing from the baroque rhythms and dialect humor that dominated the previous century into everyday conversation. Best known for his contributions to The New Yorker, Thurber's comic persona of the put-upon everyman struggling to deal with a strange and often hard world has become a cornerstone of written and spoken American comedy. His best-known characters are perhaps Walter Mitty, his snarling wife, and silently observing animals. In the early 1920s, he worked as a journalist for several newspapers. Thurber also lived in Paris, writing for the Chicago Tribune while trying to further his writing career.